The present invention relates to the field of ice holding devices, and more particularly to multi-purpose ice forming assemblies.
Conventional ice trays generally suffer from several endemic problems. Some of these problems include the following.
The first problem pertains to the filling of conventional ice trays to achieve level filling of each ice compartment. The second problem pertains to the transporting of a filled ice tray to a freezer without spilling water during transport. The third problem pertains to the placing of an ice tray in a freezer without spilling water. The fourth problem pertains to the lack of levelness of a freezer, which may result in non-uniform sized cubes. The fifth problem pertains to the tendency of ice cubes to go stale due to absorbing odors from other foods. The sixth problem pertains to the cubes being exposed to air and evaporating. Other problems exist.
Previous attempts to solve some of these problems include the following. One solution involved the creation of a bottle style ice tray. This method allows the user to fill a bottle with a desired liquid to an indication line on the bottle, to cap the bottle and to place the bottle in the freezer. While this is a simple and easy to understand approach the design has several problems. The first problem is that if the device was slightly over-filled the cubes would overflow the ice separation walls and freeze into one block of ice, thus making it nearly impossible to extract the ice. The other major flaw is the type of material traditionally used in fabricating the bottle is non-flexible and breaks quite easily.
A second solution involved using a sliding lid that is connected to an ice tray and pushed over the ice compartments once they were filled. While this accomplished the covering of the ice for transportation and prevents the evaporation of the ice once the device is placed in the freezer, sliding the lid is difficult and spillage frequently occurs before the tray is moved.
Known art related to an ice holding device includes the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,896,849, issued to Newman on Feb. 7, 1933, discloses a freezing tray with a cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,604,579, issued to Deneboudes on Jul. 22, 1952, discloses an ice bucket having a double wall and transparent or trans-lucid windows so that light can illuminate ice held within the ice bucket.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,670,523, issued to Fogt et al. on Jun. 20, 1972, discloses a resilient plastic ice tray and integral grid formed by a longitudinal center partition having an inverted V-shaped cross section together with transverse partitions enclosing two rows of freezing compartments. The tray center partition being of greater height than its transverse partitions, end walls and side walls to allow complementary notched locking guides formed on the underside thereof to cooperate with the upstanding rib portion of the central partition of an underlying tray for relative sliding movement therebetween and to support the trays in interlocked nested fashion when the trays are stacked one upon another in vertically aligned relation. Each tray has its side and end walls provided with an outwardly extending flange wall which allows a tray with its frozen contents to be inverted and nested over a receiving container having a cooperating outwardly directed seating ledge about its upper open end to harvest ice cubes into the container while the container additionally provides for a tray to be nested in an upright position either over or under the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,122, issued to Hobson on Mar. 28, 1978, discloses a carton of a suitable protective flexible plastic or plastic coated material includes a plurality of ovoid cavities for receiving eggs, each cavity having a plurality of communicating channels with tapered sides. The material provides a waterproof base to permit further use of the egg carton as an ice tray. The channels permit water flow between adjacent cavities and provide stress points to facilitate separation and removal of ice cubes formed in the cavities.
U.S. Pat. No. D249,269, issued to Pitts on Sep. 5, 1978, illustrates an ice tray for making spherical ice cubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 262,355, issued to Oakley on Dec. 22, 1981, illustrates a combined egg carton and ice tray.
U.S. Pat. No. D292,802, issued to Fails on Nov. 17, 1987, illustrates an ice cube tray for making half-spheroid ice cubes.
U.S. Pat. No. D352,045, issued to Daemen et al. on Nov. 1, 1994, illustrates an ice cube tray and dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. D431,754, issued to Thuma on Oct. 10, 2000, illustrates an ice bucket with apparent moisture escape slits.
U.S. Pat. No. D483,620, issued to Basara on Dec. 16, 2003, illustrates an ice bucket having a bucket, lid, and liner.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,014,162, issued to Lion et al. on Mar. 21, 2006, discloses an ice cube tray having a rigid support structure for easy handling and manipulation includes plural ice cube compartments, the ice cube compartments including deformable, flexible bottoms to enable ejection of ice cubes by application of a small force on each ice cube compartment's bottom. The tray may be used with a cover that can be utilized as a server. The tray when used with the cover is spill proof. To use as a server, the tray and cover are turned upside down, the ice cubes are ejected by applying force to the flexible bottoms of the ice cube compartments. Once ejected, the tray is removed to reveal the ejected ice cubes within the underside of the cover. Multiple ice cube trays can be stacked on top of the cover
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not utilize or disclose an ice holding device that can serve as an ice tray, an ice bucket and a beverage cooler in the manner of the present invention.
Therefore, a need exists for an ice holding device with these attributes and functionalities. The ice holding device according to embodiments of the invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art. It can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved ice holding device which can be used commercially. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills these objectives.
The foregoing patent and other information reflect the state of the art of which the inventors are aware and are tendered with a view toward discharging the inventors' acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be pertinent to the patentability of the present invention. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing patent and other information do not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventors' claimed invention.